Dance The Laird of Milton's Daughter 3659

This is one of the earliest “modern” dances published by the Society (1963 in Book 22).

There are a few curious anecdotes about the origin of the title of this dance. George Emmerson’s Scotland Through Her Country Dances used to claim that Flora MacDonald, well known from the mythology surrounding Bonnie Prince Charlie, was the daughter of a laird of Milton (on the west coast of South Uist) and that the dance was named after her. In the second edition of the book there is a reference to the dance in the index, but the page in question has been replaced by a facsimile of the old description of a completely different dance! Apparently the second edition thus corrected one of the bigger bloopers made in the first, in a somewhat ham-fisted manner, without also fixing the index.

The correct story goes as follows: According to Book 22, the dance was “Devised by Lord Craigmyle while in India”. The Laird of Milton in question is known to be the late Chief of Clan Arthur, James E. MacArthur-Moir (1914–2004), who apparently worked in India for a while. The dance was invented on the occasion of the birth of his daughter – according to Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, she is called Mary MacArthur (now Wood) and was born on 10 October 1950.